Eden Hazard's father has rejected any suggestion his son feigned the injury that led to his substitution in Chelsea's 2-1 defeat at Leicester City on Monday.
Hazard was replaced by Pedro Rodriguez on 31 minutes after a late challenge by Jamie Vardy during the loss at the King Power Stadium, which left Chelsea just one point clear of the relegation zone.
Mourinho said after the match that he did know the nature of the injury, adding: "The only thing I know is in 10 seconds he made the decision himself. It must be a serious injury because he just left the pitch and just made the decision not to go in."
There had been suggestions in England -- picked up by Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad -- that Hazard had exaggerated the injury, which has since been diagnosed as a hip problem.
Headline on the front page of a Belgian paper: did Eden Hazard fake serious injury to boycott Mourinho ? #cfc pic.twitter.com/VAf8RKdS6m
- Kristof Terreur (@HLNinEngeland) December 16, 2015
However, his father, Thierry, has now told Het Nieuwsblad that there is no truth to those claims.
"These are stories that are invented when things go badly," he said. "Do you really think that Eden would feign an injury in such an important match? You also must know him as someone who likes to play football and preferably to do so as much as possible? No, he really hurt his hip."
On when last season's player of the year is likely to return, Hazard Sr. added: "It's difficult to say, but let's hope he's playing again soon."
Hazard has not scored for Chelsea since the 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace on May 3 but his father remains confident he will soon bounce back.
"He remains pretty relaxed underneath still," he said. "Every footballer goes through these periods when they have all this difficulty.
"Eden will continue to work hard -- [work hard] for Mourinho as well, yes. They really do still get along."
Mourinho, who said he felt his "work was betrayed" in the Leicester defeat, launched a further attack on his players' attitudes this week, telling Chelsea TV that some lack passion.
"Some of them need to rethink the way they live Chelsea, they live football, they live their job," he said.
ESPN FC has been told that the Chelsea board held discussions over Mourinho's position this week amid concerns some of the squad are no longer listening to the manager.